Day Off
by Auroura
Summary: Riku and Naminé play hooky and go on an ice cream date. Part of the Awakenings verse, but can be read as a standalone. Riku/Naminé, DiZ, Sora.


Title: Day Off  
>CharactersPairings: Riku+Naminé, DiZ, Sora, mentions of the Riku Replica, implied SoRiKai OT3.  
>Rating: PGish for mentioned deaths? Not anything worse than the games.<br>Summary: Riku and Naminé play hooky and go on an ice cream date. Part of the Awakenings verse, but can be read as a standalone.  
>AN: Many thanks, as always, to my lovely beta, wayya. This was originally planned to be the epilogue to Copperhead Snake, but has since expanded and morphed into what you see now.

* * *

><p><strong>.<strong>

**Day Off**

**.**

As she had done in Castle Oblivion, Naminé sits in the white room of the Haunted Mansion in Twilight Town and draws. Drawing is all she really knows how to do, and she does it constantly, with barely any rest.

Naminé's work in Castle Oblivion had been both very simple and very complex. It was simple in that all she had to do was draw pictures, but it was complex in that there were many layers she had to work with and many different chains she had to balance. The one thing Naminé had been told to do was to earn Sora's undivided loyalty, but there were so many other things that went along with that order.

The easiest way to win Sora's affections was to implant memories of herself into existing memories of Sora's that were already there. In that way, the number of memories Naminé needed to create from whole cloth were then minimized and the chance of failure was therefore lessened. The way Naminé did this was to turn memories of Kairi into memories of herself. The girl Sora spent time with and cared about was no longer a tomboyish and outgoing girl with red hair; the girl now was artistic and reserved, with blonde hair. One promise and charm was replaced with another.

But just replacing Kairi was not enough for the Organization; there was still the issue of Riku. In Sora's heart, there was not only a girl, but also a boy. The Organization forced Naminé to make Sora choose between them, and since Naminé was the one who had to win Sora's devotion above all others, devotion to Riku had to be altered and lessened. This was the eventual role of the Riku Replica. Naminé was told to make the Replica loyal to her as well, and the Replica was pitted in an angry competition with Sora, with Naminé as the prize.

Naminé carefully tweaked, added, and removed memories until she was the only thing on Sora's mind. Then, Naminé wasn't just "the girl who was important to him". She was "the _most_ important person". Sora went from someone who said that his friends were his power to someone who abandoned Donald and Goofy to chase after Naminé and fought with Riku as a rival.

Naminé had never wanted to do that to Sora. She almost feared it was too late to return him to normal, that the damage she had caused was irreparable, but Axel had given her one last chance. Axel had his own reasons, of course, not many of them altruistic, but it allowed Naminé to tell Sora what was really going on. When Sora realized the truth, he finished defeating the Organization in Castle Oblivion and then asked Naminé to put him back to the way he had been before. The Organization had been operating under the false assumption that they could change Sora's nature, and Naminé knew all along that it was a false assumption the whole time, but she hadn't had the courage to correct them until she met Sora herself. Had she failed to correct them because she'd been hoping it would cause the plan to fail, or had she simply yearned for someone to be devoted to her and her alone?

"Naminé?" Jumping a little involuntarily in her seat and pulled back into the present, she looks up from her sketchbook to the speaker.

"Oh," she calms once she sees who it is. "Hello, Riku." This is the real Riku; back in Oblivion, the Replica challenged Riku in a fight that would leave only one Riku standing at the end, and the original had won. Now, in the white room of the Mansion, Riku is leaning against the wall opposite the large window, silver hair free of the hood of his leather coat but eyes covered by the black strip of fabric wrapped around his head. Sensing that Naminé's calmed down from her surprise at seeing him so suddenly, Riku begins walking towards her.

"Is the drawing not going well?" Riku asks. "You've just been staring at the paper for a while. You didn't even hear me come in." It's left unsaid that such utter absorption in her task, to the point of not noticing anyone else in the room, is an unusual occurrence for Naminé. She knows that Riku is one of the few people she can relax around, but she's spent a great deal of her awareness being overly cautious around others.

"...The drawing is going well enough," she answers, after a moment, "but I'm not making much progress." Sora's restoration has almost completely stopped.

"Can I look at what you drew?" Riku asks, with just a hint of his own cautiousness. She smiles and nods, turning her sketchbook for him to see, because it's his way of trying to cheer her up. Despite the blindfold, Riku's mundane vision is still functional, though his shaggy bangs still fall into his face as he bends slightly to look at the drawing. "That's you in the middle," Riku says, "and is that me on that side?"

"Your Replica," Naminé corrects calmly.

"Oh." Riku frowns slightly. "I haven't worn that outfit in a while." He doesn't mention the Replica himself, which is less surprising than Naminé would like it to be. It's true, though, that Riku has grown considerably this past year, and the yellow-and-blue outfit the Replica's wearing in the drawing would most certainly be too small for him now.

"And the person on the other side..." Riku frowns again, this time not in avoidance of his knowledge but in confusion from his lack thereof.

"That's Sora," Naminé supplies softly.

"Sora..." Riku says the name as if it's from a foreign language.

"He's downstairs," Naminé says.

"...Right."Riku still looks confused.

"Do you want to go visit him?"

"Yes," Riku answers immediately, decisive, then frowns again in confusion.

"It's alright," Naminé attempts to reassure him, "I should probably take a break from drawing anyway." After a moment, Riku nods absently, then steps back to give Naminé room to leave her seat. Naminé closes her sketchbook and places it on the table again, then stands up and walks towards the door from the white room to the hall. Riku follows a few steps behind, silent save the sound of his boots against the carpet.

"I think your drawing was good," Riku says, breaking his silence once they reach the basement computer room. The room is empty, which means DiZ must have business elsewhere today.

"It's not a picture I should be in," Naminé responds. When she finishes everything else in the drawing, she's going to scribble herself out of it. "Both Sora and your Replica... I changed their feelings to make them devoted to me and me alone." She looks down at the ground. "It was wrong." Riku stops walking, and Naminé pauses in turn.

"They were keeping you prisoner," Riku says. Naminé hasn't told Riku about any details of her captivity – not that he's been eager to ask – but it's an appropriate conclusion to make. "And it was... memories you changed, right?" She nods again. It's a bit of a struggle for Riku to speak on the subject, his own memory of Sora affected by Naminé's current efforts to repair the earlier changes, but he continues on, albeit with some effort. "So that means... their feelings changed on their own, right?" That might not be exactly correct, but she can tell that he's trying to make her feel better about it.

"Thank you, Riku." He nods in acknowledgement. "Let's continue." He nods again, and then they walk the rest of the way to the room with the pod. While Naminé walks all the way up to the pod, Riku, as he does every time they visit this room, stops halfway in confusion.

"That's..." His mouth is parted slightly, and the expression on his face constantly shifts, one emotion constantly moving to the next and back again.

"That's Sora," she reminds him. Riku's expression clears somewhat.

"...Sora," Riku repeats, sounding the name out on his tongue, as if it's the first time he's ever said it. Riku walks up the rest of the way to the pod, places a hand gently on its surface, and is silent for a few moments. Then, without turning his head to look at Naminé, still keeping his hand on the pod, "Do I know him?" Naminé's power scares her, sometimes.

"Yes," she answers, subdued. "He's your best friend."

"Oh," Riku says, then proceeds to stare at the pod some more, ignoring her completely.

"I'm sorry this is taking so long," Naminé continues, even quieter. Riku doesn't respond, only stares ahead at the pod, and there's a minute or two of total silence.

"Hey, Sora," Riku says, smiling. Another minute of silence.

"I'll try to be faster." Naminé looks down at her hands. Finally, Riku seems to notice she's there, though he still doesn't turn his head to face her.

"You've already been pushing yourself lately," Riku says, tone of voice and expression matter-of-fact once more. "It's giving you a block. For the rest of the day, you should take a break and relax." It's the second time today that he's caught her off-guard. He turns to face her. "DiZ has ice cream in the fridge in the computer room."

"...Okay," Naminé replies. Riku nods, then turns his attention back to the pod.

"See you later," Riku says, then slowly lets his hand fall to his side. He turns and walks back to the computer room without a word. Naminé jumps the tiniest bit, then rushes to follow him.

.~.~.

Naminé bites her lip slightly as she watches Riku dig through the freezer section of the mini-fridge in the computer room. The coat pools around him as he kneels, his hair moving as he rummages for the ice cream.

"Are we... allowed to go through DiZ's refrigerator?" Naminé ventures. Usually, she gives the red-robed man a wide berth, only speaking to him when necessary. She's just a Nobody, after all. It's beneath him to even speak to her; eating his food without permission would be inexcusable. Riku pauses for a moment.

"I'll pay him back for the ice cream," Riku shrugs, then stands up and closes the fridge. "Hold these for a sec." He puts two ice creams into Naminé's hand, then digs in a pocket of his coat for some munny, which he places on one of the monitor tables next to the fridge. "Let's eat outside." Naminé hands him back one of the ice creams, then follows him up the stairs and through the library to the hall.

"Are you sure it was okay to take the ice cream?" she asks again, as they walk back down the stairs to the ground floor.

"Fresh air is good for you," Riku replies, holding open the front door of the mansion, gesturing with the hand holding the ice cream for her to walk through.

"If you say so," Naminé concedes, giving him a small smile.

"We'll walk around town," Riku declares, and he lets the door close behind them as they step outside. Their short trip through the woods in between the mansion and the town is uneventful, but Naminé pauses as they reach the wall separating the woods from the town.

"Riku..." Naminé starts hesitantly. She's reluctant to bring up the subject now, since Riku's sensitive about it and it might ruin the mood of this little trip, but she can't forget their obligations completely. Riku, who had been about to step through the crack in the wall himself, stops to allow her to finish. "In the town, your blindfold..." Immediately, Riku tenses.

"I can see just fine," Riku retorts, quickly and a little defensively. She was hoping he wouldn't have this reaction.

"No, I mean the people in town," Naminé clarifies. "They don't know the situation. We have to stay inconspicuous." If DiZ found out they not only ate his ice cream but endangered their covert mission by letting one of their enemies find their location, he'd be furious. "They don't know you can see." Naminé tries to keep her voice as deliberately calm as possible, and after another few moments, Riku slowly untenses.

"You mean they'll think I'm blind?" He still sounds a little uncomfortable, but it doesn't seem like it's directed towards her anymore.

"It's likely," she answers. Riku frowns for another few moments, in which Naminé isn't entirely sure that upsetting him was worth staying inconspicuous, but then he proceeds to surprise her for the third time today. Somewhere between slow enough not to startle her and determinedly trying to distract himself from the subject they've just been discussing, Riku grasps Naminé's free hand in his own.

"There," he says, and Naminé's not entirely sure which of them he's trying to convince. "We can pretend you're leading me around." He grips her hand as if he fully expects her to let go, the faintest hint of pink on his cheeks.

"...Okay," she replies quietly, and curls her own fingers around his hand. He relaxes more fully, now, and they begin to walk through town, eating their ice creams. For an hour or two, Naminé almost feels like a real girl.

.~.~.

When they get back to the mansion, DiZ is annoyed. Riku abruptly lets go of Naminé's hand, and she quickly scurries upstairs. She can hear Riku and DiZ arguing downstairs, with DiZ speaking in authoritative tones and Riku affecting his most disinterested-sounding one-or-two-word responses. Strangely, it's more reassuring than worrying.

Smiling, she turns to a new page in her sketchbook and starts drawing. It might not be what she's supposed to be working on right now, but she wants to remember it properly. It's not long before she hears the thump of Riku's boots up the stairs and to the white room, but Naminé's been so absorbed in her work that she has no idea how long it's been.

"Is everything alright?" she asks as Riku walks in wearing his own annoyed expression.

"He'll get over it by tomorrow," Riku answers, shrugging. He tries to affect disinterest at everything in general for another twenty or thirty seconds, but then yields to his curiosity. "Back to drawing again? Can I look at it?" Naminé nods.

"I'll go back to drawing things for Sora tomorrow," she explains as he again leans to peer at the drawing, "but I wanted to make one for today, too."

"Is that us?" Riku asks, though they both know that the two figures holding hands and eating ice cream in the drawing are unmistakable.

"Today was... nice," Naminé says, keeping her gaze focused on the paper. "Thank you."

"It's not a big deal," Riku replies a little awkwardly, then moves away from the sketchbook to look at some of the drawings on the walls. "You needed a day off." Naminé doesn't know whether being pleased or concerned would be more appropriate here. As is her wont, she ends up concerned.

"I didn't mean to embarrass you," she says, frowning. Riku turns back to face her.

"It's not a big deal," he repeats unconvincingly. After a moment, he realizes how unconvincing he is and relaxes, smiling. "But I liked today, too. I'm glad that you feel like you can start drawing again soon." Naminé hesitates, and then Riku's expression turns serious again. "What is it?"

"I don't have any problems with my drawings," Naminé says, "but the restoration is going much slower than I thought it would. I'm not entirely sure about the cause, but..." Riku looks expectant. "...it's almost like there's something tangling all the memories up."

"Is there anything I can do?" Riku asks immediately. It's a little daunting.

"I'm not sure yet about the source of these tangles," Naminé responds, which only causes Riku to frown more deeply.

"If there's something I can do, will you let me know?" He's incredibly stubborn that way, which is both his best and worst quality.

"...Yes," she agrees, though a bit reluctantly. It's not that she's worried he won't; it's that she knows he will.

"I'll go ask DiZ if there's anything he can find out from the computer," Riku's already halfway toward the door, "and if you think it's necessary, I'll get in touch with the King."

"Wait," Naminé says, just as he's about to leave the room. Riku turns around halfway to look back at her. "After you talk to DiZ, can you go and say hello to Sora for me?" Just as she hopes they will, Riku's furrowed brow and downturned mouth transition into a slightly confused smile.

"Sora..." He repeats it as if it's the first time he's ever said Sora's name, the corners of his mouth quirking upwards. "Yeah, I'll tell him hey for both of us."


End file.
